By Michelle Curtis on July 7, 2014 at 10:06am
Nintendo has officially announced that they will sponsor this year's EVO tournament.
Let's go back to 2013 for a moment. In an effort to allow players a voice in the lineup for EVO, organizers for the event polled users on Facebook for titles they would like to see in the Player's Choice category. The list of possible games was compiled from those that garnered over 500 votes the previous year (including titles like "Soul Calibur V," "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," and "Dead or Alive 5"). To make votes count (and to keep spammers and cheat votes out), users were asked to raise as much money as possible with the funds then being donated entirely to breast cancer charities. This event raised over $220,000 but those who chose to back "Super Smash Bros. Melee" raised the most money (a whopping $94,683).
That's when things took a turn for the worse.
EVO is streamed via Twitch every year. The tournament is so expansive and the list of games so extensive that it requires multiple streams to keep all the action going. However, when the streaming discussion came up, Nintendo put on the brakes. The gaming giant has been notorious for their dislike of streaming game footage. After the overwhelming backlash from the gaming community, Nintendo finally allowed for the “Super Smash Bros. Melee” stream to go ahead as planned.
Fast-forward to 2014. At this year's E3, Nintendo welcomed professional “Super Smash Bros.” players to attend the “Super Smash Bros.” invitational tournament. Here we are—mere days before EVO 2014—and it is announced that Nintendo joins the growing list of EVO sponsors (ATLUS, Xbox, Bandai Namco, Brokentier, and Mad Catz to name a few).
Has Nintendo truly learned the error of their ways? Are they really beginning to listen to the gaming community? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, don't miss any of the EVO action from July 11-13 in Las Vegas. Check out the official EVO site for more information.
Nintendo Sponsors EVO 2014 D'Ron Maingrette Tweets Sponsors for EVO 2014 EVO 2013 lineup EVO 2013 FB poll EVO 2013 Donation Drive results Nintendo/EVO stream debacle EVO crowd Donation Drive results EVO 2013 SSBM results EVO 2014
